True or False: It is free for a company to raise money through retained earnings, because retained earnings represent money that is left over after dividends are paid out to shareholders. False True The cost of equity using the CAPM approach The current risk-free rate of return (rRF) is 4.23% while the market risk premium is 6.63%. The Jefferson Company has a beta of 1.56 . Using the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) approach, Jefferson's cost of equity is The cost of equity using the bond yield plus risk premium approach The Kennedy Company is closely held and, therefore, cannot generate reliable inputs with which to use the CAPM method for estimating a company's cost of internal equity. Kennedy's bonds yield 11.52%, and the firm's analysts estimate that the firm's risk premium on its stock over its bonds is 5.89 . Based on the bond-yield-plus-risk-premium approach, Kennedy's cost of internal equity is: 16.54% 21.76% 20.89% 17.41% Estimating growth rates It is often difficult to estimate the expected future dividend growth rate for use in estimating the cost of existing equity using the DCF or DG approach. In general, there are three available methods to generate such an estimate: - Carry forward a historical realized growth rate, and apply it to the future. - Locate and apply an expected future growth rate prepared and published by security analysts. - Use the retention growth model. Suppose Kirby is currently distributing 55% of its earnings in the form of cash dividends. It has also historically generated an average return on equity (ROE) of 12%. Kirby's estimated growth rate is %